Entertainment

Google Acquires BeatThatQuote for $61.5 Million

Google has broken new ground in the personal finance realm with the purchase of UK price comparison website BeatThatQuote for $61.5 million (£37.7 million GBP).

BeatThatQuote, launched in 2005, provides price comparisons for UK loans, insurance, legal services, utilities and other financial products. It was named one of the UK's fastest-growing websites by Nielsen in 2007.

"Our team is excited about becoming a part of Google," BeatThatQuote Managing Director John Paleomylites said in a statement on the company's website. "We look forward to working with their engineers to create new tools making it easier for consumers to choose the right financial products. We think we can offer more transparency and better pricing information than existing online offerings."

It's likely that Google will use BeatThatQuote as its foothold into the UK financial products market. Google has recently shown interest in price comparison technology as well, most recently utilized in the company's mobile shopping apps.

By adding price comparison results to search, Google can get a piece of the transaction whenever someone starts searching for a home loan or a new car insurance policy on its search engine. The potential revenue from those transactions could make this acquisition quickly pay off.

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